I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 21

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Another day dawned.

As I came out of the changing room after I finished changing into my uniform, Kang Ha-ni, who hadn’t even gotten out of bed, let alone started getting ready, stared at me blankly.

“…What are you doing?”

“What are you doing?”

We stared at each other blankly as if we were creatures who couldn’t understand each other.

Kang Ha-ni always woke up and got ready before me. Since she needed to put on her disguise and chest bandages before dressing up, she had no choice but to wake up earlier than me.

Ah, by the way, there was an episode in the original story where Lilac, driven by his pride, tried to wake up before her, resulting in both of them losing sleep, and he ended up disliking her because of it.

Me? I didn’t even look at the top bunk when she was sleeping.

No, even when she wasn’t sleeping, I tried not to look at her bed.

If, by any chance, I accidentally saw something I shouldn’t have, our precarious roommate relationship might devolve into a master-servant dynamic with me being the servant, forced into silence after a brutal beating.

Anyway, I didn’t even know she was still in the room.

I thought she had gotten ready already and left without waking me up.

It seemed she woke up to the sound of me changing, but she was still wrapped in her blanket, probably because she hadn’t put on her bandages yet.

After staring at each other blankly for a moment, Kang Ha-ni was the first to regain her composure.

She smiled and waved her hand from under the blanket.

“Hey, I overslept. You should go ahead so that you won’t be late.”

“Huh?”

“It would be bad if you were late too. I’ll catch up to you soon, so you go first~”

What? She seemed to be playing a prank on me, but I didn’t know what kind.

“Then I’ll go…?”

It was unsettling, but if I waited any longer, I would really be late.

Well, she was a physically capable superhuman, so she should be able to run pretty fast.

I left the room, went down the stairs, exited the dormitory, and only after starting my walk to school did I realize something.

Yes.

The path to the academy was too quiet.

There wasn’t a single person in sight.

The path, which was usually bustling with energetic students, was eerily quiet today, enough to make me feel uneasy.

Was it a villain’s doing, or was it a precursor to an incident that was about to occur without my knowledge?

No, wait.

Yes.

Students didn’t go to school on Saturdays.

I forgot about this because of my long life filled with part-time jobs and labor, where there were no such things as holidays.

Damn it.

Now I understood why Kang Ha-ni was smirking.

That little devil.

It seemed to be entirely my fault for forgetting, but Kang Ha-ni was still half at fault for not correcting my misunderstanding.

“Hey!”

Filled with righteous indignation, I stormed back to the dormitory, threw open the door, and was greeted by Kang Ha-ni dressed in casual clothes. Men’s clothes, of course.

“Haha, you really didn’t know! How far did you go? Judging by the time, it doesn’t seem like you made it to the school gate.”

“Who would go that far when the path itself was this quiet!?”

“Normally, unless you have club activities or something, you wouldn’t even think of going to the academy on a Saturday.”

Damn it.

I couldn’t refute her since she was using facts and logic.

“Ah, you’re so cute. If you came back a little later, I would have finished preparing breakfast.”

“Huh? Breakfast?”

The academy dormitory didn’t provide breakfast.

It was common to go to the student cafeteria if you had time, or just eat some bread if you were in a hurry, but surprisingly, Kang Ha-ni was currently cooking.

Huh? How could she cook in the dormitory? Did each room have a kitchen?

-But I can’t resist homemade food made by a cross-dressing girl.

Those were the author’s actual words. Bam bam bam.

I personally agreed. I couldn’t resist such homemade food either.

In the original story, Lilac’s goodwill with her was so low that he only got the chance to eat her homemade food after summer vacation started.

“You were going to buy something anyway. Since it’s the weekend and I have time, I’ll make it instead.”

“Oh, okay, but what about ingredients?”

“I bought them at the supermarket on my way back yesterday. It’ll take a little longer, so make yourself comfortable~ And change out of your uniform. Ahaha, so funny.”

Damn it. I was incredibly frustrated, but I couldn’t argue with someone younger than me and who was even cooking for me right now.

I already lost, and arguing would only make me feel worse.

As I changed into my casual clothes, a familiar aroma came to me.

Doenjang jjigae, fried eggs, grilled spam, kimchi, and white rice, is a staple for Koreans. It was a truly Korean meal.

“It’s a simple breakfast.”

Simple? A meal with jjigae wasn’t a simple meal in my book.

As I took a spoonful of the jjigae, I was moved by the savory and salty taste of doenjang.

This was the first time I had a proper home-cooked meal since the omurice Professor Cathy made.

Especially the doenjang jjigae, which I hadn’t had in a long time even before possessing this body. The mild taste, though less stimulating than restaurant food, was incredibly delicious.

“Eat up. You must be tired from working out in the morning. Hehe.”

Ah, there were potatoes in this doenjang jjigae.

There was a scene in the original story where Lilac was surprised to find potatoes in the jjigae, and experiencing it myself felt novel.

“Is it good?”

“Yeah, your future girlfriend will be lucky.”

“Huh?”

“Guys who can cook are popular these days.”

“Ah, right, that’s what you meant. But is this really considered good cooking, just jjigae and grilled spam~?”

“True skill shines through in simple dishes like these.”

“That’s true.”

We ate as we exchanged meaningless conversation, and I was quite full before I knew it.

It was a satisfying breakfast.

“I’ll do the dishes.”

“Just relax. I cooked, so I’ll do the dishes.”

“Hey, how can you make me eat your food and then do the dishes after? I’ll do it.”

“Why would friends worry about that? If you’re really sorry, think about what we should do today.”

Huh?

What was she talking about?

It sounded like she was planning to spend the rest of the day with me.

We had been getting along since we entered the dormitory early, but we had never gone out together.

“Did we make plans to go somewhere today?”

“Uh, not really, but… my classmates at the academy said…”

“Hmm.”

I nodded, encouraging her to continue, and Ha-ni, blushing slightly, hesitated for a moment, then spoke with determination.

“My classmates are hanging out this weekend, and they asked if I wanted to join them. And then I thought, even academy students can hang out with their friends on weekends, right?”

“…Right?”

Well, even if they were prospective heroes, they were still kids.

Of course, they would hang out with friends their age and relieve stress over the weekends.

“So I wanted to hang out with you.”

Ha-ni, you would normally make plans first, wouldn’t you?

As I looked at her, Ha-ni added defensively,

“Actually, I didn’t have any friends before coming to the academy. You’re my first friend, so I wanted to hang out with you.”

Aw, cute.

She was cute because I knew she was a girl, but it would have felt awkward had I not known that she was a girl.

“Ah, or do you have plans for today?”

Ha-ni, who looked happy despite her shyness, suddenly deflated as if she had thought of a possible scenario.

I didn’t have plans, but I was going to work out.

“No, I was going to work out, but it’s okay to take a day off.”

Hardcore gym rats might worry about losing muscle, but I wasn’t that serious.

It would have been difficult tomorrow because I had plans, but I had nothing scheduled for today other than training, and I could grant her simple wish of hanging out with a friend as thanks for the hearty breakfast.

It was just that… It was sad that she had never made any friends.

…Actually, I was the one who suggested adding the “no friends” setting as a reason why she couldn’t completely cut ties with the protagonist even if she disliked him, so I felt a bit responsible.

I’d help you make lots of friends, Ha-ni! I’m also sorry from before!

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Where would you usually go if you were hanging out with a heroine (a victim of “Death Before Heroine Status”) in a novel?

Probably karaoke, or bowling, which I hadn’t done much, or maybe an archery café?

Fortunately, there were many such entertainment facilities around the academy.

Now, as you might have guessed, we were currently in a place far removed from such youthful spaces.

“A kendo dojo.”

We were instead in a deserted, old-fashioned kendo dojo.

What? Was she planning to utterly crush me and make me regret calling her my friend?

“Han-hee, when you said ‘let’s hang out’ did you mean ‘you have fun while you use me as a punching bag’? Because I would be very disappointed in you if that was the case.”

“Huh? Ah, you don’t like it? I’ve never hung out with a friend before. I thought I’d show you what I’m best at.”

Surprisingly, it seemed like she chose the place without any malice.

“Well, kendo isn’t bad, but let’s do something else today.”

You couldn’t just casually show your family’s secret swordsmanship techniques. Damn it.

She probably wasn’t planning to show me, but she was the type to do so if she got excited.

And even if she didn’t, as her Creator’s friend and Ha-ni’s first friend, I had a duty to prevent her from creating an awkward atmosphere, being ridiculed, and developing social anxiety when hanging out with other friends.

“Let’s go to karaoke instead.”

“Karaoke? Can anyone go? I’ve never been there before.”

Well, I hadn’t read anything in the settings book about needing to pass a qualification test to use karaoke, so it should be fine.

Even in this crazy world, there wouldn’t be a rule like that.

“It should be fine, right?”

“Why are you asking me? Haven’t you been there before?”

“Nope.”

I hadn’t been to one in this world.

“Huh!? Really?”

“Well, you haven’t gone to one either.”

“That’s good. It’s the first time for both of us. We really have a lot in common.”

Don’t say it like that. Your phrasing was a bit…

“Ah, let’s go in.”

Kang Ha-ni seriously didn’t know what karaoke was.

If she did, she wouldn’t have tried to take me to the third floor of a suspicious building with a pink sign that said “Karaoke.”

“Hey, that’s not karaoke.”

“Huh? But it says ‘Karaoke.’”

“No, it’s not. The place we’re going to is called ‘coin karaoke,’ a much healthier and more beautiful place of culture.”

Seriously, why was there a place like that near the academy?

I took the compliant Ha-ni to a proper karaoke place.

I wondered if they would have any songs that I knew? Thankfully, they had everything, so we were able to sing our hearts out.

I might have gone a bit overboard when I enhanced my vocal cords and sang until they were raw, but it was fun, so it was fine.

The rule of karaoke was to sing sincerely. I would let my future self worry about my vocal cords.

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Kim Ga-eul was feeling rather down on a weekend that she should have been enjoying.

Insults from strangers flooded her smartphone messenger. She blocked the numbers, but even more messages poured in, so she turned off the notifications instead and half-gave up already.

Her so-called friends and the boys who used to follow her around now ignored her at best and mostly responded with insults, so there was no way she could enjoy the weekend.

Everything had been going smoothly after entering the academy. She made decent friends using her talent, and she even gained some admirers.

Was it a mistake for her to not be satisfied with just admiring him?

Or was her mistake trying to gain a position by sacrificing someone for it?

Probably both.

Looking at her smartphone, which was still accumulating insults in real time, she suddenly thought of someone.

“…The loser wouldn’t insult me even if I contacted him, would he?”

For some reason, the loser, no, Kang So-hyun, seemed indifferent to her.

He sometimes looked at her with pity and sighed as if he found her unpleasant, but he always answered her when she spoke to him.

She felt resentful, but thinking rationally, she had no right to be.

As she opened her smartphone and hesitated, she realized something and irritably turned it off again.

“I don’t have the loser’s number.”

That’s right.

She couldn’t possibly have his number when they weren’t even close.

“No, what am I even thinking? I just thought of him for a second. If I became friends with the loser, he might mediate between me and the other kids. That’s all.”

What was he doing now?

Did he have friends to hang out with on a weekend?

If he didn’t…

“…Would he have come out if I had contacted him?”

She was going insane.

Trying to message someone she had bullied.

She must have lost her mind.

“…Should I ask him on Monday?”

Seriously.

She was definitely crazy.

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T/N – Dang, Ha-ni is currently best girl! Don’t hesitate, MC. She wasn’t even part of the protagonist’s harem. She died before she could be part of it. So she’s free game for you! Also, I still don’t like butt girl. You gotta try harder than that author.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.